Stranded in Venezuela

So here's going to be my big announcement of 'here's everything I did'. Take from it what you will, and if you got any questions I'll happily answer.

From the very start of the merge, I wrote down in confessional my ideal boot order. Here's the first 5:

1. KimJ
2. Sarah
3. Clarence
4. Kimp
5. Vecepia

Now obviously Sarah got shuffled around, but that was pretty much how things went otherwise.

Now here's the list of deals and relationships I had early in the merge:

Sean/Gabe/Pat - Final 3
Gina/Gabe/Pat - Final 3
Lindsey/Gina/Gabe/Pat - Final 4
Gabe/Pat/Sean/Linda/Lex/Vecepia - Final 6

After Vecepia's boot, Linda made a F3 deal with Gabe and I.
Gabe had a close relationship with Lex, and we were hoping to use that to force him to take us to F3 with so many other threats around.

At the merge, an alliance of 8 was made between Lindsey, Lex, Linda, Gina, Gabe, Pat, Sean, Vecepia. Those 8 voted Kim J out.

At the next TC, Lindsey, Gina wanted to team up with Kimp/Sarah and Gabe/Pat to take out Sean. They pretty much agreed and it was a done deal. Until I logged in I told Sean about the whole plan, and as long as he kept it quiet I wouldn't get fucked over by it. Once the news got back to Lindsey that Sean knew, the plan was off and I pretty much single-handedly got the vote back on Clarence.

At this point, Gabe and I were assessing our options and we couldn't continue working with Kimp by hearsay from Lindsey alone so we flipped on that group to get rid of her.

Then, Gabe and I teamed back up with Gina/Lindsey to get rid of Vecepia since Sean/Lex/Linda/Vee were splitting the votes, but also because they were considering just all 4 voting for Gina behind our back rather than splitting Sarah/Lindsey.

At this point, Gabe and I had a F3 deal with Gina, Sean and Linda, and Lex was waiting in the wings so we figured we'd target Lindsey, but first we wanted Sarah gone. Sarah goes, and then I get the big ol' backstab.

Gabe is the only person in this game who's been in absolute control the entire merge thus far. Sure he had me making a lot of moves and decisions for him, but he got rid of me at F7 like a smart cookie and I genuinely think he's playing the best game out there. Sure that may just be because of my proximity to him throughout the game, but we couldn't have made any of the moves we did without each other.

Lindsey/Gina have had almost no say on their own. Linda/Lex were at least making deals on the side, but Gina/Lindsey have done practically nothing from my P.O.V They kinda just coasted and stayed loyal to each other and were unwilling to make any real moves.

Lex I think is playing a great game as well. He's likable, but not enough of a threat to be targeted. I think people see him as Linda's pawn but it's really only because they've made the same decisions and Linda's more visible but Lex is being smarter.

Linda for me is kinda meh atm. She's gone with the flow and stayed out of the way while still being a major component. I still prefer her to Lindsey/Gina

At this point, if it wasn't obvious already, here's my most to least respect rating:

Gabe
Lex
Gina/Linda
Lindsey

Not that I dislike any of them. I think any of the F5 would be a great winner, but that's how I feel when it comes to who's played the best game so far.

Thanks for posting this Pat. Gabe may be quiet but he's been he was somewhat in control during the early merge but after my boot he's managed to avoid being targeted and control the vote well.

Patricia wrote:Lex I think is playing a great game as well. He's likable, but not enough of a threat to be targeted. I think people see him as Linda's pawn but it's really only because they've made the same decisions and Linda's more visible but Lex is being smarter.

What sucks about this was after Linda and Lindsey had a huge tribal council blowup, Linda practically fell apart and I took over (along with Sean) and he and I practically did every move from then on for Linda, even though Linda had done most of the work before the blowup (talking to Lindsey, Kim P, the 8 way alliance, and so on).

I was trying to keep good relationships with people while not appearing as a threat myself, but I overdid it and got taken out because Sean's last-ditch effort to save himself swayed Linda's vote. Linda and I were close ever since the swap, before that we were just talking about politics and other things but after the swap was when we really started working together, including Frank's blindside and all the way up until F5, when I created a F3 deal with her and Gabe around ~F8 or F7 I think it was? Something like that... After the merge Gabe and I got talking and became tight as well. I was sure we were tight after you guys blindsided Vecepia (I was absolutely certain you guys would flip in my head, but we wanted to prove to you guys that we would be loyal to you, and that was one of the reasons you won immunity, nobody targeted you because we didn't want to seem like we were targeting you, which we weren't at the time) because he was talking with me and he seemed genuinely concerned I wouldn't be happy about his flip, and I said not to worry about it and we were still cool.

Now one of the main issues you guys flipped was because you felt insecure in our group of 4, I totally get that, and I wanted to tell Gabe we were planning to blindside Sean earlier but I was afraid he might leak it and would get me screwed. And by not telling him what our plans were (in fact, I said to him "I planned all the way to F3 but it was crushed so I don't want to think ahead now" or something like that surely instilled a fear in his mind that we would vote you and him out at F6. So in a way, I indirectly caused the Vecepia vote, or I could have prevented it had I spoken up.

After the Vecepia vote, Sarah was still on the board and a dead sweep if she made it to the finals. This was when your name was brought up, I forget who did it but it was basically unanimous to vote you out because Lindsey and I felt like you and Gabe were playing both alliances and could go whichever way you wanted to. I didn't tell Gabe until that night right before the Sarah vote because I was still unsure if he would leak the plan to you (because you having the idol was still a complete possibility). He said if we were planning to vote you out tonight after I messaged him (I had messaged him and Lindsey because I was unsure about that night's vote - I didn't know where Lindsey's alliance stood and if they would follow through with the plan, and for Gabe I didn't need to message him but I did anyway lol... can't even remember why I did. But Lindsey said 100% he (Lindsey is a he btw) would vote out Sarah then Pat, and I trusted Gabe so after we talked for a bit and we all swore to secrecy (this was not a 3 way conversation but 1-1, 1-1) we decided to vote Sarah then you that night, that was how your blindside started, because you flipped from their alliance to vote Kim, then you flipped to vote Vecepia and you and Gabe were in the power position to go either way and nobody wanted that. Plus despite everybody's constant mocking of your avatar we all knew you were a threat to win the entire game as proven by the questionnaire challenge.

After that had happened, I wanted to vote Gina next, then Sean, to break up the Gina/Lindsey pair which had been spoken about for what felt like years now, but everyone else wanted to vote Sean and I thought that my alliance with Gabe and Linda was strong enough to then vote Gina and Lindsey right after. And then the night Sean got eliminated he made a whole scene and it swung Linda (Gabe and I were very very tight at the time) who I desperately tried to convince to keep me because I explained a whole bunch of reasons why Gina would win the game - challenge dominance, backstabbed nobody, social game, jury favours her alliance, etc. Mind you, it's much harder to talk to somebody when you're only on a mobile in-between airports, because my first flight at 6 am got canceled (I got up at 4 am for that flight...) so I went home (I was waiting in the queue for over an hour, and by the time I had eaten breakfast with the vouchers the airport staff had given me for a canceled flight and got home, it was about 9) until I left for my 3 o clock flight at about 1:30. I had had 3 hours of sleep the previous night so I was extremely tired. After leaving for my 3 oclock flight, I messaged Linda and Gabe and Gabe reaffirmed his saying that he wanted to take me to the finals 100% even if I could beat him (and I wanted to take him even if he could beat me, we talked about this a lot and like I said we were actually a lot tighter than everyone realizes) but Linda had not said a word to me all day or the previous night after Sean had thrown me under the bus at tribal. She said to me she was hoping a night without talking to anyone would help but it hadn't. I left for my flight to Calgary which got delayed (!%#!%^&@) and when I arrived at Calgary, my next flight's boarding time was literally in about 20 minutes so I rushed there and messaged Gabe/Linda on the fly, and then my flight got delayed AGAIN... Gabe told me I shouldn't worry and he was 95% sure Gina would go home tonight, and I told him I hoped he was right and one thing that I don't want to reveal until later. Both of them knew at this time that I wouldn't be present at either the immunity challenge or tribal, I had asked Jeff the day before if he could reschedule them or something and he never got back to me. So I messaged Linda and basically gave her more reasons (which I truly believed) of why Gina would win the entire game if I got voted out tonight, not to mention I have not won any challenges since the merge and Gina is a challenge beast. I said that Sean was literally on his deathbed the night he got voted out and I thought he wasn't telling the truth with what he was saying. And I said I had been true to her the whole game and Gabe ever since the merge for F3 and I had been nothing but honest with them (and I'm sure many of you except maybe Sarah know I'm one of the least duplicitous people in this game) and I was hoping they would both stay true to me. But my hopes weren't very high at this point. Linda said she was leaning towards Gina but would tell me if she was going to vote me because she said she wouldn't lie to me. I said I was boarding my flight and would not get here (Vegas) until very very late due to my replacement flight being later than my original flight which was cancelled, plus my connecting flight to Vegas being delayed. And I didn't want to get screwed tonight because I didn't have a shot at the challenge.

I don't know what happened in the time I was on the airplane and the time I touched down, frantically opened my mobile in the roasting hot airport and saw my purple name. And then I boarded a shuttle and had to wait ~2 hours until I finally walked into my hotel room and could catch up on everything that happened. That is why I was disappointed that PMs were disabled, I understand why because I shouldn't be sending any but I wanted to know what I had been sent while I was on the plane here and wasn't able to view. I don't know if Linda was telling me the truth or not now which sucks because it would affect my vote at FTC for sure lol.


Right now I'm really nostalgic about the whole game, and disappointed that today, my flight which I got up at 4 am to board got canceled, then my replacement flight which was 7 hours later than my original flight would cause me to miss the event I wanted to go to tonight (nothing to do with casinos) because it arrived at Vegas too late. Then my replacement flight got delayed, and when I arrived at my transfer flight at Calgary that ALSO got delayed, so I was a bit irritated (I'm sure everyone can speak for me that I'm a very chill person, except for when I feel like somebody gets screwed unfairly, for example misspelling a person's name in a challenge where the spelling matters 100%) when I arrived. Although I wasn't boiling-point irritated. When I connected to the internet and saw my name in purple I thought either Gina had won immunity or Linda had flipped, which the second wasn't very likely, and now I can't really see the reason why she flipped because the last thing she told me was she was leaning towards the Gina vote and would tell me if she was voting for me tonight.


And like Frank said, I was not even going to come CLOSE to winning the final immunity challenge because I have an all-day seminar to go to tomorrow, although it is possible Linda decided the vote would be 2-2 because Gabe would be on my side at the F4 tribal. So I'm disappointed that today was very rough, but I'm happy for everybody in the F4 and I know I could have played the game better than I did, but I'm still happy with the way I did play it.

That's pretty much my story. Don't complain it's long or don't read it at all.

I'm known for long messages anyway, and those that I messaged most often can verify that's the truth, and that was the main reason I didn't talk to you very much Kim P. even after the merge, because when I tried messaging you I only got 1-3 halfhearted responses. I barely talk IRL (believe it or not...) and I type at 110+ words per minute so talking with people online about common interests is something I enjoy doing and something I barely ever do, I said in my confessionals this game was the perfect excuse and while I did enjoy talking with everybody that I did, and while that was also my game plan coming into the game (it achieved two goals - become likable and talk with people about common interests) it was also what screwed me because I got voted out since everyone liked me too much.

For me, when I entered the game, the player I tried to base my game off of the most (and also my favorite player) was J.T. from Tocantins. Everybody liked him so much they didn't want to vote him off, and I was half-hoping that would also be the case in here, but I got too caught up in talking with everybody and doing so much strategy (For those of you like Sarah/Clarence who think I wasn't doing anything, you had the wrong impression, the reason you guys thought I wasn't doing anything was because I didn't want to associate myself with you guys or I'd be taken down right after you both were gone) that ultimately it led to my labeling as a threat, and while this was not very apparent before the Sean vote, his speech on his deathbed was the straw that broke the camel's back. Actually I don't really agree with that statement, it's more like his dying words was the anvil that broke the camel's back.

Anyways that was my game plan, but all of my relationships with the people here that I built them with were genuine and they accomplished the two things I wanted to do when I joined the game, albeit late. But it really, really sucks that today I got up at 4 am, had a canceled flight, then a delayed flight, then another delayed flight, then I missed the event I badly wanted to attend tonight, missed immunity, missed tribal, AND got backstabbed and voted out by the person I was a pair with for pretty much the entire game. But I have no hard feelings about it, just nostalgia and I wish I could do this all over again.

Cool. Even though I knew Gave and Pat might flip, everyone else knew for sure?

I was pretty certain they would, they never told me they would flip but it was pretty obvious they wouldn't be comfortable 4:2.

That was also the reason for the Pat vote, we knew that vote would be the prime time for you to blindside one of us remaining 3 so we chose to blindside you before yo blindsided us. (@Pat)